The Darkside Detective

5/5 stars - This is a great short and easy game that provides more than many point and click games. The dialouge is fairly snappy, and you'll likely have some laughs as you go through. The game is set in a lousy town and with questionable people all about. The game has fun with that premise and it doesn't take it self too seriously, as is evidenced by the actual gameplay at times ridiculing the game itself. There are six primary levels which can be played and beaten individually usually in less than 20 minutes or so at a pace where you aren't trying to speed run. I bought my copy for sale for something like 5 or 6 bucks, and it was totally worth that. This isn't a game that you are likely to sit down and rock the whole thing out, but instead play a level once in awhile and it'll be decent. Like many other point and click adventures, there is limited life after you play once through. However, there are three bonus levels that show up once you beat the original six that are shown when you first start play.

Don't expect the puzzles to make you think too hard, and I'm not a fan of the "fake pixelart" approach (where sprites can rotate, there is non-pixelart bloom and UI and scaling problems), but the stories are witty and quite funny at times, sometimes enough to even be quite memorable. The game is quite short, but that's not such a bad thing nowadays. Combined with a nice soundtrack, it's an enjoyable experience! In my opinion, the game breaks the fourth wall a little too often, which prevents being really immersed in the story and wears off the surprise effect, but I guess that's a choice. PS: not sure what "got political" in the game as mentionned in another review. All good :)

I went in expecting nothing and I was hooked. Theres never a drag, theres 1 puzzle interaction I didn't like but thats it. Everything is done consistently well, if you like the setting of investigating paranormal events above your pay grade then its pretty interesting. But don't expect an in-depth detective RPG either. Each chapter is between 15 and 40 or so minutes. For the full game, 4-5 hours (including bonus chapters). All that would still add up to 4/5 rating to me. What makes it a 5 is your partner. Every single room (besides a few he doesn't step into) has a piece of dialogue and hes quite the character. A few have bonus dialogue from him after an event. I love games with the extra attention to detail afterall. If theres one thing I didn't like, its that alot of mysteries feel 'setup' to be solved. Like you get handed the tools from, well, a paranormal source despite the unlikely odds. They even joke about this towards the end. Its because they tried to avoid the P&C thing where you have a dozen items and have try every single item when stuck. Here, you rarely have more than 5-6 items at a time and usually 3-4 meaningful rooms. It is a tad simple, but worth the sale price. The sequel does change this issue with more indepth chapters, if this is something that bothers you. Overall, one of the better spooky P&C games imho.

Surprisingly well executed. Good looking visuals, and you can quite easily beat it without a guide. The interface is simple and self-explanatory. The music, the style and the idea itself are epic. I believe I haven't encountered a single bug during the game. The dialogues and the so called 'humour', oh my... If you enjoy 'too bad it's cringe' stuff - this might be for you. A few worthy excerpts: "this office desk was owned by sergeant McDesk", "a fishy flyer (it's fishy because it smells of fish!)". The funniest part is that there are a couple of moments where it's meant to be a bad joke by scenario, but since all of them are equally bad, you can hardly notice the difference. All characters (except the computer girl) are worthless assholes. On one side it can be good fuel for the plot on the other - I got tired of them pretty quickly. Anyway it's a nice little game. I'd recommend it for point-n-click fans.

As others have said, if this sense of humor appeals to you, you'll love this game. I can definitely imagine people who might hate it, though. It's like Airplane/Leslie Nielson meets Twin Peaks/Horror tropes.